Politicians past and present reflect on the 100th anniversary of Alberta women getting the voteBack to video

The Prairies, starting with Manitoba, led the way in securing most women the right to vote in the early 1900s. The Equal Suffrage Statutory Law Amendment Act passed on April 19, 1916.

The following year, in June 1917, women in Alberta went to the polls, becoming the first in Canada to cast their ballots in a provincial election, and the first to run for provincial office.

It wasn’t until 1960, with the inclusion of indigenous people through amendments to federal legislation, that all Alberta women gained the same right.

The country had to wait 33 more years for a woman to become prime minister, and only now have the Alberta and federal governments achieved gender parity in cabinet.

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Kim Campbell, prime minister from June to November 1993

Canada’s first and only female Prime Minister Kim CampbellAndrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Campbell was born just after the Second World War, the daughter of two war veterans. It was a time when people thought about big issues and the things that were at stake in terms of leadership, she said. Her dream was to become the first female secretary general of the United Nations, something that might finally happen for the first time this year with several women in the running.

“It’s hard for young people to even imagine that there might have been a time when women didn’t have the vote,” she said. “I think it’s really important to stop and think about what it meant and the fact that there could ever have been a time when women who played such an important role building the country didn’t have that fundamental political right.”

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Having more women premiers normalizes seeing them in charge and helps change people’s attitudes, Campbell said. There are currently three women premiers out of 13. But there are still barriers, especially when it comes to appointing women to hard-hitting portfolios such as finance and defence. Campbell said she’s still the only female defence minister Canada’s ever had.

“It’s not just having the vote, it’s also having a voice in the halls of power,” she said, adding that “enlightened male leaders” play a part in using their power to give women a chance to show they can do the job.

“On the one hand, it’s really wonderful to think that it’s been 100 years, and in another way, it’s a bit depressing to think it’s 100 years and we still have a long way to go,” she said.

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Stephanie McLean, Alberta’s minister of status of women

Stephanie McLean, Minister of Status of Women and Service Alberta

While the NDP government has achieved gender parity in cabinet, men outnumber women nearly three to one in the highest levels of the government’s civil service. Alberta was also the last province to create a ministry for the status of women. Its mandate is to increase women’s physical and economic security, while also aiming to improve female participation in democracy.

“One of the ways that we’re working on this going forward, and was part of our platform commitment, is increasing minimum wage. Sixty-two per cent of minimum-wage earners are women. Moving forward to increase that will enhance women’s economic participation,” said McLean, who is the first sitting MLA to have a baby.

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She said the government also aims to achieve gender parity in all agencies, boards and commissions by the end of its mandate.

“The vote is certainly an important marker of women’s equality, the start of it. It certainly wasn’t the be all end all of women’s votes in this province because it certainly didn’t recognize indigenous women or women of other ethnicities at that time, but it was certainly the beginning,” she said.

One of the most important things to remember about this anniversary is the courageous women who refused to accept society’s constraints and fought for change, enduring the social consequences and being ostracized, McLellan said.

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“Those women, the suffragettes, to go to the streets and suffer the ridicule and everything that went with it during that period of time, I think should not be taken for granted and should not be lightly forgotten,” she said.

“We need that same desire to step forward and identify the wrongs and be courageous in calling for improvement of people’s lives today. We need to be as courageous today as those women were.”

Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wildrose Party from 2009 to 2014

Former Wildrose leader Danielle SmithEd Kaiser/Edmonton Journal

Smith believes there’s been a “fundamental” change in people’s attitudes toward women in leadership roles in the last several years, as many women became premiers, levelling the political playing field.

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“Now I would say it’s not an issue. I would say women and men have equal opportunity to take the top job in any election,” she said.

That said, being a woman in politics is challenging. When Smith and former premier Alison Redford had heated exchanges in the legislature, they would be described as a “cat fight,” she said.

“I don’t think anybody would describe two men interacting in that way, or even a man and a woman … so there are still perception issues that you have to deal with and biases when you’re dealing with two women in leadership roles. Both Alison Redford and I were very passionate people who had strong opinions and it shouldn’t be surprising that we clashed, but it was depicted in that way. I think that was unfortunate.”

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“That was the only area where I felt like it was a mischaracterization of what we were both trying to accomplish as leaders,” she said.

Rona Ambrose, interim leader of the federal Conservative Party and official Opposition leader in Ottawa

“It makes me proud that these were western women who blazed the trail for women like me,” Ambrose said.

“Getting the right to vote means getting the right to run for office, which means getting the chance to get things done for women,” she said, noting that her proudest accomplishment, as a cabinet minister, was to extend marital property rights to aboriginal women.

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